Architect for change and omnipresence

City Councilman Peter Brown, who has chartered an exploratory committee to run for mayor in ’09, hit some civic hot spots in the last few days, and the venues could not have been more different in the politics they represented.

Brown chatted up some Republicans on Wednesday at a forum for GOP county judge candidates Ed Emmett and Charles Bacarisse hosted in a business-oriented hotel near the Galleria by the Greater Houston Pachyderm Club.

On Thursday he joined protesters in the blustery weather outside the county criminal justice center to throttle Republican DA Chuck Rosenthal for harboring racist e-mails on his government computer.

These are people who are victims of a criminal justice system that’s not fair to all people in this city, and everybody, including myself particularly, have to stand up and say ‘they’ve got to get it right.’

If the Houston Police Officers’ Union is saving video of anyone other than drunken drivers, it may hang on to this clip when it decides whether to back Brown for mayor down the line. On the other hand, aggrieved civil rights activists may remember his show of solidarity, too.

Former state Rep. Al Edwards, D-Houston, who is on the March primary ballot as he seeks a return to the Legislature, was also in the protest crowd.

Excuse Peter Brown for trying to bring people together! Heaven forbid we have a city official that speaks to everybody instead of just one group of people or another.

Peter Brown is the first city council member to really get it about protecting neighborhoods. He has helped our Heights neighborhood get as much protection as possible in this city. I think he would be a fantastic Mayor. I would love to see a Mayor that really understands the needs of the city and has the intellectual capability of grasping and dealing with the problems we all face daily.

I noticed that he just put up a cool new website. Maybe he is running for Mayor. Check it out at: